


...And home before dark

by BroadwayBaggins



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Childhood Friends, Children, F/F, Flashback fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:47:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23617012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BroadwayBaggins/pseuds/BroadwayBaggins
Summary: Mary wants to go explore the abandoned farmhouse at the end of the lane, and she won't take no for an answer.
Relationships: Anna Bates & Mary Crawley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	...And home before dark

The farmhouse, the final one in a row of tenant farmer’s houses on the edge of the estate’s property, had stood abandoned for as long as anyone could remember. 

The door had long since rotted away, leaving a hole like the one in Sybil’s mouth after she’d lost her most recent tooth. There was a massive hole in the roof to let in the elements, and the entire house seemed to lean precariously to one side. It looked like one good gust of wind would topple the whole thing over, but it had stood for Lady Mary Crawley’s entire life and hadn’t fallen yet.

And she was fascinated by it.

Edith said it was haunted. She had insisted to Mary that the story had been told to her by one of the village children, a gruesome tale of a farmer’s daughter and a jealous man and how one or the other or both were cursed to haunt the house for all eternity. But Edith was only eight and would believe anything that was told to her, no matter how ridiculous. Mary was a whole year older than her–almost _two_ years!–and was far too smart to be taken in by such tales. But still, she found the house endlessly fascinating, and one lazy summer day, when Sybil was in bed with a cold and Nanny was nowhere to be found, she suggested they go and explore it.

“Just five minutes,” she told her sister breathlessly, wanting to waste as little time as possible convincing her. “No one will even know we’re gone. Don’t you at least want to look?”

“But the ghosts will get us, Mary!”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Mary snapped. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“How do you know?”

“If ghosts were real, why would they choose a falling-down farmhouse to haunt when they could choose our house?” The logic made perfect sense to Mary. “I’d much rather haunt Downton Abbey than a little farmhouse.”

“Papa said it isn’t safe!”

“Papa also said he hasn’t been inside. How would he know whether it’s safe or not? Besides, we’ll only be a few minutes. I just want to get a look at it. We’ll be back before Nanny wakes up from the nap that we’re not supposed to know that she takes. Come on, it’ll be fun. Unless you’re scared?”

“I’m not scared!” Edith cried out. “I just don’t want to go. And if I can’t go, you can’t go, because Papa would never let you go out by yourself.” She crossed her arms over her chest and shot Mary a look of triumph, certain that she had won.

Mary tossed her hair and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Miss out, then. Sit at home with your dolls and be bored. I’m going anyway. I’ll ask Anna.”

And she left the room before Edith could argue with her more.

Anna Smith was a few years older than Mary. She didn’t know how many, exactly. She had arrived at Downton Abbey only a few months before to work as a maid. Mary hadn’t spoken to her much–she seemed quiet and like she liked to keep to herself, but they could work around that easily. It didn’t take Mary long to march down to the servant’s hall and locate her where she sat busily folding the serviettes for tonight’s dinner. “I’m going to explore the abandoned farmhouse, and you’re coming with me,” she announced without any further explanation, then turned around before Anna could protest.

“Lady Mary?” she heard a confused voice call out after her, but she did not turn around. 

“Meet me outside in five minutes!” was the only response Mary gave.

Part of her was expecting Anna to ignore her request, but she was pleasantly surprised when, five minutes later, she saw Anna coming out of the servants’ entrance. She wore no hat to protect her from the sun, and she kept looking over her shoulder as if they were about to be caught. “Good,” Mary said briskly, delighted that her plan had worked so well. “You came. Follow me, I know the way.”

“I don’t know about this, Lady Mary…”

Mary waved away her protests. “We won’t be gone long at all. Just a quick peek. If you get into trouble, you can blame me. I won’t mind.” She wouldn’t get in trouble if Anna were to blame her, but she didn’t feel the need to remind the older girl. She was sure Anna already knew.

“But surely one of your sisters–”

“Sybil’s sick and can’t play outside, and Edith’s no fun.” Mary’s lower lip stuck out in a pout. “Please, Anna, come with me. It’ll be fun. Don’t you want to go on an adventure?”

She met Anna’s eyes, both daring her to say no and pleading that she would say yes. Anna’s expression softened a bit, and she snuck one last look over her shoulder at the estate. “If you’re sure we won’t be gone too long…”

Mary beamed at her. “I promise. Cross my heart and everything. We’ll be back before anyone even notices you’re gone. And if anything happens, just say it was all my idea. Which it is, so it’s not even a lie!”

Finally, she was able to coax a smile out of Anna. “Very well, Lady Mary. Lead on, then.”

——————

In the end, it took much longer to reach the house than Mary had anticipated. At first, Anna was quiet as they walked, but once Mary got her talking, she didn’t stop. When they grew too hot walking in the sun, they sat down on the grass and Anna reached into her apron pocket to reveal two pieces of shortbread she’d sneaked out from under Mrs. Patmore’s watchful eye. Anna picked flowers and wove them into a crown, which she placed on Mary’s head, and Mary proclaimed it prettier than any one of Mama’s tiaras.

The house itself was rather anticlimactic up close. Upon entering, Anna startled a small flock of birds that had taken up residence in the chimney, sending them fluttering up into the sky–and of course, sending several centuries of soot raining down on both girls. Mary and Anna had laughed until their sides ached.

And when they’d arrived back at Downton Abbey as the sun was starting to set–after Mary explained that it was all her idea, that Anna shouldn’t get into any trouble because Mary had practically forced her along, in fact that Anna had tried to talk her out of it–no one got into any trouble, just as Mary had promised.

They hadn’t discovered any ghosts. But Mary couldn’t help but think that she had found something even better. She had found a friend.

**Author's Note:**

> The lovely MercuryGray requested a fic with Downton characters and the theme "an abandoned place", and this fic was the result. Mary is about nine years old here (almost ten!) Edith is eight, Sybil probably five or six. Going by the Downton wiki page, Anna is between four and six years older than Mary, so she's probably a young teen in this. My understanding has always been that Anna entered service rather young, and worked her way up to head housemaid by 1912. This was commonly done at the time. Any factual errors are my own!
> 
> Title comes from Into the Woods!


End file.
